Publications of Sitter, N.

The Four Horsemen of Terrorism: It's Not Waves, It's Strains

David Rapoport's concept of Four Waves of terrorism, from Anarchist terrorism in the 1880s, through Nationalist and Marxist waves in the early and mid-twentieth century, to the present Religious Wave, is one of the most influential concepts in terrorism studies. However, this article argues that thinking about different types of terrorism as strains rather than waves better reflects both the empirical reality and the idea that terrorists learn from and emulate each other. Whereas the notion of waves suggests distinct iterations of terrorist violence driven by successive broad historical trends, the concept of strains and contagion emphasizes how terrorist groups draw on both contemporary and historical lessons in the development of their tactics, strategies, and goals. The authors identify four distinct strains in total—Socialist, Nationalist, Religious, and Exclusionist—and contend that it is possible to trace each strain back to a “patient zero” active in the 1850s.

A Liberal Actor in A Realist World: The EU Regulatory State and the Global Political Economy of Energy

Since 1992, the European Union has put liberalisation at the core of its energy policy agenda. This aspiration was very much in line with an international political economy driven by the neo-liberal (Washington) consensus. The central challenge for the EU is that the energy world has changed, while the EU has not. The rise of Asian energy consumers (China and India), more assertive energy producers (Russia), and the threat of climate change have securitized the IPE of energy, and turned it more 'realist'. The main research question is therefore: 'What does a liberal actor do in a realist world?' The overall answer as far as the EU is concerned is that it approaches energy challenges as a problem of market failure: imperfect competition on the supply side; inadequate supply of public goods on the demand side and in terms of infrastructure; and large externalities that arise both from non-energy events and from large-scale consumption of fossil fuels. A Liberal Actor in a Realist World assesses the changing nature of the global political economy of energy and the European Union's response, and the external dimension of the regulatory state. The book concludes that the EU's soft power has a hard edge, which is derived primarily from its regulatory power. This works best when it targets companies rather than governments, and it is more effective in the 'Near Abroad' than at the global level. This makes the EU emerge an actor in its own right in the global political economy of energy - a 'Regulatory Power Europe'.

A liberal actor in a realist world? The Commission and the external dimension of the single market for energy

This article investigates the European Commission's external energy policy through the lens of the regulatory state. It argues that because of the nature of its institutions, policy tools and resources, the Commission remains a liberal actor even as the world leaves the benign pro-market environment of the 1990s and becomes more mercantilist – or ‘realist’. The article tests seven hypotheses related to two key challenges as perceived by the Commission: building energy markets, and making them work. It finds that the Commission seeks to project the single market beyond its jurisdiction to deal with transit infrastructure problems; extend international regimes to cover energy trade; deal with monopolists such as Gazprom through classical competition policy; and fix global energy market failures with clear regulatory state tools. Importantly, however, some actions by the Commission can be seen as an attempt to counterbalance external actors, or as second-best efforts to address energy market failures.

The EU's Soft Power with a Hard Edge in Energy: Implications for EU Policy Strategy and Energy Security

The biggest energy policy challenge that the European Union faces besides climate change is security of supply. Policy recommendations on EU energy security commonly either invoke the need for more EU hard power – such as stronger external energy policy, a tougher stance towards Russia, stronger “pipeline diplomacy” with alternative suppliers of oil and gas – or more attractive soft power – primarily a matter of improving the working of the single energy market and persuading non-EU states in the near abroad to adopt similar market-oriented regimes. This brief assesses the EU’s policy tools in the energy sector, and explores whether what might be labelled ‘soft power with a hard edge’ can amount to a consistent and realistic policy strategy.

National identity and constitutionalism in Europe: Introduction

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one on how identification between a people and its constitution can be established when there are conflicts over core values, another on how an ethnically homogeneous state with a liberal constitution, nationhood and citizenship remain dominant issues in constitutional politics in Hungary, as well as a case study concerning Spain which emphasizes the importance of reaching a negotiated settlement acceptable to all parties even at the cost of a coherent constitutional arrangement.

If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them? Explaining Social Democratic Responses to the Challenge from the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe

Over the last three decades many Western European social democratic parties have been challenged by populist radical right parties. The growth and success of parties on the right flank of the party system represents a triple challenge to the social democrats: they increase the salience of issues traditionally 'owned' by the right; they appeal to working-class voters who traditionally support the centre left; and they may facilitate the formation of centre-right governments. This article explores social democratic parties' strategic options in the face of this challenge, and tests the widespread assumption that the centre-left parties respond by taking a tougher stance on issues related to immigration and integration. Comparative analysis of developments in Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway reveals significant variation in the substance, scope and pace of the strategic responses of their social democratic parties. And it suggests that those responses are influenced not only by the far right but also by the reactions of mainstream centre-right parties and by parties on their left (and liberal) flank. Internal disunity, potential or actual, is also an important factor.

Book Review: Milada A. Vachudova: Europe Undivided: Democracy, Leverage & Integration after Communism

Vachudová, M. A. (2005). Europe undivided: Democracy, leverage, and integration after communism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Civil wars, party politics and the consolidation of regimes in twentieth century Europe

The present article explores how winners' and losers' strategies for competition influence the possibility of democratization after civil war. Civil wars have been pivotal events in many states, but there has been little analysis of how they affect democratization. Since most have been won by the political right in twentieth century Europe one expects a correlation between civil war and the imposition of authoritarian solution to political conflicts. However, an analysis of five civil wars shows a wide variety in the patterns of political dominance achieved by the winners, ranging from total clampdown in Spain to the winners relinquishing power, as in Ireland. In between, Finland, Greece and Hungary combined various degrees of open competition with restrictions on the losers. In effect democratization can be as likely an outcome of civil war as regression to authoritarianism. Explaining the variation in outcomes of the five cases is the objective of this article.

Cleavages, competition and coalition-building : Agrarian parties and the European question in Western and East Central Europe

The central argument in this article is that Europeanisation of party politics 2013 the translation of issues related to European integration into domestic party politics 2013 is driven by the dynamics of long- and short-term party strategy. Variations in the patterns of Euroscepticism found in agrarian parties across Europe is therefore explained in terms of three central variables: the agrarian parties' long-term policy goals linked to identity and interest; their position in the party systems and the mainstream left- and right-wing parties' stance on European integration; and their long- and short-term electoral strategies and office-related incentives.

Book Review : Helen Wallace: Interlocking Dimensions of European Integration Edited

Wallace, H. (2001). Interlocking dimensions of European integration. One Europe or several?. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave.

Ever Closer Cooperation? The Limits of the 'Norwegian Method' of European Integration

The 'No' majorities in two referendums on European Community/Union (EC/EU) membership have set clear formal limits to Norway's participation in European integration. However, pro-EU parliamentary majorities have tended to produce governments that seek as close cooperation with the EU as possible. This involves a kind of quasi-membership of the EU, particularly in the light of cooperation beyond the limits of the European Economic Area (EEA). The result has been a 'Norwegian method' of European integration that combines access to the Single Market with efforts to 'purchase' participation in other policy areas and adapt to changing EU policies, legislation and treaties. Given the supranational character of the EU's Single Market rules, this kind of quasi-membership goes considerably further than non-members' participation in most other international organisations. Although the EEA system has worked to the parties' satisfaction, Norway's efforts to keep up with a changing Single Market, maintain the institutions in the face of treaty change and enlargement, and accommodate new developments pertaining to the EU's second and third pillars represent considerable challenges to the Norwegian method of integration.

Book Review: Anna Bosco: Comunisti: Trasformazioni di Partito in Italia, Spagna e Portogallo

Bosco, A. (2000). Comunisti: Trasformazioni di partito in Italia, Spagna e Portogallo. Bologna: Il mulino.

Opposing Europe: Euro-Scepticism, Opposition and Party Competition

Euro-scepticism plays and increasingly significant and controversial role in West European party politics. It features across the political spectrum, and several parties’positions on the European question have changed over time. The present paper sets out a model that casts Euro-scepticism as the ‘politics of opposition’, rejecting suggestions that it represents a cleavage or a single issue. Hard (principled) and soft (contingent) Euroscepticism is driven by a combination of a party’s identity, policies, electoral strategy and quest for office, in the context of the party system in question. The first pattern of opposition, competition between catch-all parties, is not associated with Euro-scepticism,and if at all only of the soft variety and then in opposition. Parties that adopt the second pattern, cross-cutting opposition based on values or interest, have a greater propensity toward Euro-scepticism, but this may be mitigated by electoral or coalition strategy concerns. Third, opposition at the flanks of the party system links the far left and right to Euro-scepticism in terms of anti-system protest. However, party based Euro-scepticism among flanking parties depends partly on whether other parties have crowded out the Euro-sceptic space. The extent to which changes in strategy and tactics affects policy stances provides a dynamic element that explains changes in party stances on European integration better than merely relying on policy. Party based Euro-scepticism is thereforepresented as a product of party strategy, or ‘the politics of opposition’.

The Politics of Opposition and European Integration in Scandinavia: Is Euro-scepticism a Government-Opposition Dynamic

Scandinavian party competition has incorporated divisions over European integration to a greater degree than most West European party systems, but with considerable variation in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. From a comparative politics perspective this raises questions about the relatively high salience of Euro-scepticism in Scandinavian politics, the differences between the three cases and changes over time. The central argument in this article is that Europeanisation of party politics – the translation of issues related to European integration into domestic party politics – is driven by the dynamics of long- and short-term government-opposition competition, and the key driver of change is party strategy. Whether at the centre or extremes of the party system, Euro-scepticism is a product of party competition — and is, both in its origins and development, 'the politics of opposition '.